Ondo PDP to Akeredolu: Leave local government alone 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state, on Sunday charged the state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu to settle down with governance rather than frustrating local government administration in the state.

The PDP charge was contained in a statement issued and signed by the party’s Director of Publicity in the state, Ayo Fadaka who noted that the governor is confronted with many challenges that needed urgent attention rather than wasting his time on trivial issues.

According to Fadaka, the local council chairman were democratically elected to carry administer the local councils areas across the state and should be given the freedom to discharge their responsibilities.

The party said in the statement, “It continues to amaze us that the Akeredolu government has stooped low to take some actions targeted at frustrating the Local Government system in spite of existing laws, regulations and even Supreme Court verdict that guarantees the sanctity of the election and tenure of elected Chairmen and Councilors.

“It is our firm conviction that there are direct challenges that compel the immediate attention of the Governor which he must dedicate time to solve in our health, education and infrastructural sectors rather than to zero in on actions calculated to frustrate the Local Governments.

The party noted that there was no justification for Akeredolu to freeze the account of the local government in the state or to remove the names of the secretaries and supervisors from the list of councils officials.

These actions to us are nothing short of vendetta and we belief that a man of Akeredolu’s standing should be above such, considering his pedigree, exposure and competence.

“One indisputable fact that we however appreciate is that the issue of dissolving Local Governments elected administration is an impossible action in today’s Nigeria when due cognizance is paid to the last Supreme Court judgment on this issue.

“Therefore, we declare that it remains in the interest of the State for the APC administration of Akeredolu to allow the Local Governments to discharge their responsibilities unencumbered.” the party stated.

The PDP in the state however called on Akeredolu to give room and provided the enabling atmosphere for the elected local government chairmen to discharge their constitutional responsibilities to the people while “the governor too settles down squarely to administer our state flawlessly.”

The statement read “as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he cannot afford to be seen as trying to compromise the judicial system through his actions or even inactions and we want to trust that he is too matured and refined to tread this path.”

However, the Deputy Chairman of the APC, Mr Ade Adetimehin described the PDP statement as unnecessary alarm, saying Akeredolu has done nothing wrong with the administration of local government.

Adetimehin stated that the PDP are preempting Akeredolu over the local government issues but said the governor has pledged not to dissolve the local government administration in the state and has kept to his promise.

He said, “The PDP was just raising unnecessary alarm, Akeredolu is Senior Advocate and cannot do anything that is against the rule of law. They think he would dissolve the local government and he had not done so.

“He has promised to serve the state better and that is what he is doing currently. So I think the PDP should allow the governor to work, they should not cause confusion in this state.”